Pardew cools Coloccini rift talk

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has revealed he had a falling out with club captain Fabricio Coloccini prior to their fixture against Queens Park Rangers.

Pardew shared an on-pitch embrace with the Argentine following their 1-0 victory against QPR on Saturday that saw the club move up to 14th in the Premier League table. Speaking after the game, Pardew described the disagreement as a 'silly little thing', and also admitted that they are entitled to a difference of opinion.

"I just said to him before we walked out on the pitch - 'look, we are both winners, we are allowed to fall out'," he said. "We fell out last week and we're entitled to do that, as the captain and the manager. It was just a silly little thing and I know he was determined to get the result on Saturday.

"I said to him before the game, 'Be our leader today, be a captain and make sure they don't get a sniff of a goal'. And when you ask someone to do a job and they do it, it's only right that you pay your respects to them. You fall out with players all the time as a manager, because if not you're not doing your job.

"Even your most senior players can disagree with that. I have no problem with that. In any walk of life you have to be a man sometimes and admit when you're wrong and also pay your respects when someone does something very right, and I thought Colo was absolutely brilliant on Saturday.

"He was never off my Christmas card list because it wasn't me who had the problem. Colo was a bit upset. It was a very little thing - if it was more serious I would say so. But I thought it was important I went on the pitch to embrace him in that way."

As well as Coloccini, Pardew also endured discord from the home support for his decision to remove Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse in favour of Shola Ameobi. Despite the booing, the 51-year-old remained confident in his decisions and revealed afterwards that he is often too focused on the match to note the crowd's reaction.

"I've made substitutions in my career when people have wanted to rip the place down - you just have to be brave enough to make those decisions," Pardew argued. "I don't really notice (the crowd's reaction) too much. I don't really notice it when they sing my name either, I'm focussing on the game.

"I just felt we lacked a bit of creative flair in the second half. I wanted to get three different creative players on the pitch. Sylvain is pushing now and I think he's showing what we hoped he could show. Vurnon Anita, has been our best player in the last four or five games, yet before that looked like he was struggling a bit."